I took a longer break from work during January than I have in past years, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are a few of the things I want to remind myself to hold on to for a bit longer:
- Keep singing sea shanties on TikTok with my son (will he fulfill his ambition to be a bass?)
- Walk the dog while listening to Zombies, Run with my daughter, and move faster!
- Record the changing moods of the casuarina forest near our home
- Continue to use the little free libraries nearby – this month’s best pick was Josephine Rowe’s short story collection Here Until August – and make regular donations as I work through the unread shelf challenge
- Go to the theatre (ideally more than once a year) – Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Picture of Dorian Gray was awe-inspiring!
- Visit the dog beach. That joy is infectious:
- And continue to seek novelty and travel from home: visit random street view and sound of a forest, watch movies from around the world (I still have The Red Turtle and Zarafa waiting for us), try new foods, read the International Booker prize winners (I loved The Memory Police), listen to Belle Chen’s Sounds From Home (she describes it as “a global exploration where listeners around the world share their city’s sound & story, and I improvise music in response”)…
The Slow Academic 
An inspiring list of new year promises-to-self, Agnes & will steal some. I do have one intersecting one – to persuade bloke to work with me on building a street-side library box for our neighbourhood.
B
Kia kotahi, tapatahi tatou / Let us all unite together side by side.
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Definitely build one, Barbara! We have a small one a few houses away, another small one and a large one at the local shops. I am spoilt for choice, but some of our best reads come from the street library! Recently I was dropping off some books while a neighbour was browsing and, after asking a few questions about her reading life, was able to put two historic novels in her hands.
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